Career Path Senior Financial Strategy Manager at LiquiLoans FinTech

Sure, happy to do that.

Basically, I was working since about 2018 or 2019. I graduated from college in April 2018 and have been working since then. I had three roles before joining the business school at UCLA Anderson.

My first role was in statutory audit. In India, big companies are listed on stock exchanges like the Nifty, similar to the S&P or Nasdaq in the US. There are also smaller, unlisted companies that have financial statements. These companies hire firms, typically one of the Big Four (EY, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC), to review their financial statements.

The firm confirms to shareholders that the management-prepared statements present a true and fair view of the business's actual affairs over the past year. The auditor's role is to provide assurance to the users of these financial statements.

In India, the program for this is Chartered Accountancy. In the US, it's the Certified Public Accounting Program. People often enjoy working for Big Four firms due to the respect and prestige they command. That was my first role.

After about a year, my second role was with an investment banking firm. It was a boutique firm, a subsidiary of one of India's top five private sector banks, focusing on financial sector mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

In investment banking, you typically join as an entry-level analyst out of college or with a year or two of experience. You support an associate and a team led by an assistant or executive vice president. I had an associate and an EVP or AVP above the associate. We worked in M&A.

If a company owner, like Gabby, wants to sell their company, find an investor for a stake, or merge with another company, they hire an investment banker with a sell-side mandate. The investment banker prepares valuations, an investment deck, pitch, and other materials. They then go to the market to find investors or clients interested in buying a stake.

As an analyst, your job involves a lot of research, Excel, and financial modeling. You work on the company's cash flows and assist your associate and seniors with presentations, transaction comparables, industry research, and landscaping.

Finally, after leaving investment banking, I was always interested in startups. For the two and a half years before business school, I worked at a FinTech startup in India called Liqui Loans.

Liqui Loans specializes in online lending. If an investor like Gabby wants better returns than a bank, they can invest with Liqui Loans. The company finds a borrower for them and deploys the money directly. They diversify investments to mitigate risks from borrower defaults, allowing investors higher returns by reducing the high expenses charged by traditional banks and financial institutions.

There are many interesting FinTech companies globally. In the US, an example is Robinhood for discount stockbroking. FinTech areas include payments and online lending, like Lending Club in the US, which does similar business to Liqui Loans.

If you're interested in a FinTech career, you can explore what different companies do. The US is a leader in the FinTech ecosystem, and many global innovations originate there.

I worked at that FinTech company for two and a half years in strategy and business development. I built relationships with key clients and investors and developed the firm's strategy. This included identifying new products, different client offerings, and marketing strategies for smaller cities beyond just metro areas.

Finally, I completed my application and am now a first-year student at Anderson. That has been my five to five and a half year journey so far.